Consider horsemeat. I wouldn't eat it by choice, simply because I like horses as pets. Kind of like I wouldn't eat my dogs, either. But, in Belgium, France, and Japan, horsemeat is considered a luxury foodstuff.
In times of food scarcity, people ate horsemeat. For example, during World War II butchers sold far more horse than pork or beef. The latter two were difficult to find or priced beyond what the average American could afford.
Horsemeat is on my mind a lot these days because I spend 3 or 4 days a week at a farm a few miles down the road, grooming and riding horses. One of my riding instructors considers horses livestock, only. No sentimental feelings there. He is not a vegetarian. He also raises cattle with the specific aim of selling them for slaughter.
Gordon Ramsay says we should eat horsemeat. I found the article via a horsey blog I read, Bridlepath. The Bridlepath blogger makes an excellent point in that most US horses are not raised for meat. One never knows what drugs the horses may have ingested and what ingesting those drugs via horsemeat means for humans.
Clarissa Dickson Wright (one of the Two Fat Ladies) said
"I have no objection to eating horse meat," she said. "But if it was good eating there would be more people eating it."
Bush signed a law last year in September, prohibiting the slaughtering of horses for export, H.R. 503, but the USDA wants to use a loophole that would allow the practice to continue. My trainer told me about the law when we talked about vegetarianism. He said that once Bush signed that law, the price of horses dropped dramatically, so it's great for people wanting to buy pleasure horses, though most horses sold for slaughter are difficult and not fit for regular riding. But then making any kind of profit on your horses declines because of the glut of horses on the market.
Parma natives enjoy Culatello & Picula de Caval, a horsemeat stew. Similarily, Austrians make a horsemeat stew called Kare. In Belgium horsemeat is used as steak tartare. Horsemeat is traditionally used in the German dish Sauerbraten. In Japan horsemeat is served raw sometimes with ginger and onions. Horsemeat for breakfast? Paardenrookvlees is smoked and served with breakfast in the Netherlands.
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